Advertising that the opening act of the "Zombie Hut" nightclub will be a real live honest to goodness Zombie the two press agents Mike & Jerry, Alan Carney & Wally Brown,come up empty by trying to pawn off a punch drunk boxer, with what looks like a face packed with talcum powder, as a walking dead man. This has them both put on the sh*t list of the gangster owner of the nightclub Ace Miller, Sheldon Leonard.
Needing a Zombie in order to save their necks Mike & Jerry bust their way into a closed midtown museum, thinking that theirs Zombie's in it, and despite the half-hearted objections of the museum janitor Worthington (Nick Stewart),who never thought of calling the police, the two buffoon's end up with the nutty curator Prof. Hopkins, Ian Wolf. Prof. Hopkis tells them that the only person who can get them a true live, or dead, Zombie is the mysterious Dr. Paul Renault (Bela Lugosi), if he's still alive, who was last known to be residing on the small Carribriean island of San Sabastian.
Put on a banana boat by Ace and the boys Jerry & Mike are told that if they don't come back with a Zombie they can forget to come back at all. The two stumble bums end up not only getting involved with Dr. Renault Zombie experiments but end up becoming part of them.
Getting in touch with San Sabastian nightclub singer and dancer gorgeous Jean LaDance (Ann Jeffareys), who's dying to get off the island, the trio end up in the middle of a full-moon Zombie ceremony by the local natives. Escaping from the mob of angry native warriors Mike Jerry & Jean end up getting captured by Dr. Renault and his seven foot tall Zombie assistant Kolaga,Darby Jones, with Mike getting Zombified as a victim of Dr. Renault's Zombie experiments.
Finally getting away from both Dr. Renault and the angry Zombie-worshiping natives the three Mike Jerry & Jean together with a cute little monkey, who took a shine to Mike back at San Sabastian, get on a ship as they sail back to New York City. Getting to the Big Apple just in time for the "Zombie Hut's" opening night's feature Zombie performance With Mike, his eyes bugged out and in a state of suspended animation. As the long sought Zombie is about to make his grand entrance the serum that Dr.Renault injected him with starts to wear off. Unlike the people in the movie it's the monkey who ends up not only saving the show but the necks of Mike and Jerry from getting broken by Ace's thugs.
So-so comedy/horror flick with Bela Lugosi in a very small, despite his top billing in the movie,role as Dr. Renault with the monkey getting all the laughs as well as best lines in the movie.
